Jack Black bonds with Jason Momoa in 'A Minecraft Movie': 'He's down to clown'

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If there’s an acting task Jack Black is most qualified for, it’s probably playing a video game character.

One of the first jobs the funnyman booked was starring in an ad for Activision’s Pitfall! game in the 1980s. As an actor, he’s voiced characters in big screen adaptations of Super Mario Bros. and Borderlands. He’s even seen one of his movie characters get their own video game treatment with a digitized JUMANJI adventure being added to Nintendo Switch.

So when a movie based on Minecraft was announced, he was a logical choice to play Steve, the expert crafter who leads the fantastical Overworld, a“bizarre, cubic wonderland” made popular by the bestselling video game.

“My boys loved the game. I played it for years before this movie was an idea. I loved getting into the architecture of the game. That building blocks world,” Black, 55, says in a video interview from Los Angeles.

Minecraft is an open-world game made up of blocks that lets users build structures and craft storylines on their own. “You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours,” an official logline for the game reads.

Since arriving in 2011, the title has sold more than 300 million copies and spawned numerous spinoffs, including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. 

A Minecraft Movie, in theatres now, expands the imaginative world onto the big screen with a story that finds Steve teaming up with four misfits — Jason Momoa and Danielle Brooks, along with two youngsters played by Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen — after Overworld is threatened by hostile mobs from another dimension.

Aside from being an expert player thanks to his kids, Black says he was drawn to the movie because he got to reunite with his Nacho Libre director Jared Hess and work with Momoa.

“I was already thinking me and Jason would make a great team and it would be fun to work with him. So when this opportunity came up it was a no brainer,” he says. “He’s pretty much down to clown and you can feel the audience is going to enjoy that experience. He’s got an adventurous spirit.”

Below, Black spoke more about his love of video games, forming a man sandwich with Momoa, his favourite guilty pleasure song, and told us why there’s never been a sequel to School of Rock.

How are you describing this movie to someone who knows nothing about Minecraft?

It’s an action-adventure and we go to another universe … it’s like a cubism, Picasso-type world that’s surreal and strange. And it’s a group of humans and we’re all trying to save the world through creativity.

You’ve been in a few video game movies. Is that just some coincidence?

Dude, I’ve seen the birth of video games. So it makes sense that I’m in these video game movies. I grew up with games. Starting with Pitfall! My first job was a commercial for that game and that was one of the first games I owned. I really believed in that product I was selling. I went on to play Nintendo. ColecoVision had some good games. Miner 2049er was really fun. I even had this one cool game called Vectrex that came with its own little TV. You name it, I’ve played them all.

One of the funniest scenes in A Minecraft Movie is when you and Jason form a ‘man sandwich.’ You must have had a hard time keeping a straight face shooting that sequence. How many takes was that?

Dude, how many takes? More like how many days? How many weeks. It required weights and pulleys and wire work … A lot of time went into that. It’s one of my favourite scenes in the movie. You get to that in the script and you go, ‘What? Oh, this is crazy.’ It’s what we call in the business a set piece. It’s a big expensive moment in the movie that’s worth every penny.

You have a couple of great songs in this; Lava Chicken and I Feel Alive. What’s your favourite guilty pleasure song?

I like Billy Joel … I liked listening to Billy Joel while we were making this movie … He wrote some classic tunes. But it’s a guilty pleasure because sometimes he gets a little corny.

You have great chemistry with the kids in Minecraft, Sebastian and Emma. It made me wonder why you never did a sequel to School of Rock, which was another movie in which you worked with youngsters.

That’s probably my best movie, and sometimes you don’t want to mess with the legacy because it’s so precious to me. I’m open to it if it’s great and everyone’s on board, but I’m also fine for it to be a standalone. Sometimes it’s more special when there’s no sequel.

You’ve been entertaining audiences for over 20 years. What makes you say yes to a role?

That is a good question now more than ever. I’ve basically scratched every itch. I’ve had a lot of fun and an incredible journey. So the only things I do say yes to are stuff I can’t say no to. Jared Hess and Jason Momoa and Minecraft? I can’t say no to that. Every movie I do now, I think this is probably the last one. I’ve done all I can do. But then another comes along where it’s like, ‘What? Yes OK, I have to.’ I’m at that stage of my career where I only do it if I have to.

A Minecraft Movie is now playing in theatres.

mdaniell@postmedia.com